5 US senators ask Joe Biden to impose China travel ban after respiratory illness cases
- The WHO says the spike appears to be driven by a rise in the number of children contracting pathogens they had avoided during 2 years of Covid-19 restrictions
- In recent months, the US and China have been steadily increasing flights between the countries, though they are still far below 2019 levels
Five Republican senators led by Marco Rubio on Friday asked US President Joe Biden’s administration to ban travel between the United States and China after a spike in Chinese respiratory illness cases.
“We should immediately restrict travel between the United States and [China] until we know more about the dangers posed by this new illness,” said the letter signed by Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
The rise in cases became a global issue last week when the World Health Organization asked China for more information, citing a report on clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children by the Programme for Monitoring Emerging Diseases.
The White House and the Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately comment.
Maria Van Kerkhove, acting director of the WHO’s department of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, said earlier this week the increase appeared to be driven by a rise in the number of children contracting pathogens that they had avoided during two years of Covid-19 restrictions.
